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Bloomberg has released a list of the 50 nations with the most effective health care systems. The US pulls in at 46 right behind Iran, so no surprises there, but what surprised me was the way the list might enrich the conversation of which forms of government might provide adequate healthcare. The chart transcends the capitalist verses socialist conversation. Some of the successful nations are socialist and some capitalist economies. What seems clear is that those nations which provide decent health care, have heavy government oversight.

So take a look at the list. And don’t get depressed with our miserable rankings. We did better this year than we will next year. And while we weren’t able to keep pace with Libya, we did kick Serbia’s ass.

http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-efficient-health-care-countries

Whether it is climate change, or evolution, or even an honest look at US history, the Republican Party has become the La Brea Tar Pits of dead ideologies. If the remaining Republicans who believe in science do not stage a revolt within their party, and soon, they will someday find they too have been purged for the crime of actually thinking.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/30/it_feels_like_a_personal_assault_how_the_gop_drives_away_scientists/

The belief that Assad of Syria needs to go is nearly universal. Few doubt he has committed atrocities, but why does the US seem to be running ahead of the UN inspectors to bomb Syria before a report can be filed?

According to retired NATO Secretary General Wesley Clark, a memo from the office of the Secretary of Defense shortly after 9-11 included plans to “attack and destroy the governments in 7 countries in five years.” The list included Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.”  Clark claims the strategy was about controlling oil in the Middle East.

Again, no one doubts that Assad has behaved like a monster, but the US has said that their intent in striking Syria will not be to bring about regime change, so what is going on? In 2008 the Army funded a report called Unfolding the Future of the Long War. The Chilling title is only the beginning. The report explored possible strategies for the Middle East:

“Divide and Rule focuses on exploiting fault lines between the various Salafi-jihadist groups to turn them against each other and dissipate their energy on internal conflicts. This strategy relies heavily on covert action, information operations (IO), unconventional warfare, and support to indigenous security forces… the United States and its local allies could use the nationalist jihadists to launch proxy IO campaigns to discredit the transnational jihadists in the eyes of the local populace… US leaders could also choose to capitalize on the ‘Sustained Shia-Sunni Conflict’ trajectory by taking the side of the conservative Sunni regimes against Shiite empowerment movements in the Muslim world…. possibly supporting authoritative Sunni governments against a continuingly hostile Iran.”

It is conjecture to say the US is acting on such a brutal and inhumane strategy of playing sects against one another to destabilize the entire region, but our actions in the Middle East instantly begin to make sense if that was the goal. After all, Syria is not the only nation with its monsters. Much of the world is run by brutal bullies drunk on power. It is a serious mistake  for us in the US to believe our own leaders are necessarily immune.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/aug/30/syria-chemical-attack-war-intervention-oil-gas-energy-pipelines

State Senator Jason Rapert of Arkansas recently said that while he was elected to serve his constituents, he really only serves God.

“There’s only one vote that matters and that’s when I stand before the Lord at the judgment seat.” 

So if those of us who protested abortion laws are demons or are possessed by demons, it wouldn’t make sense for the good Senator to try to reason with us or be fair to us. If the Senator really believes we represent supernatural evil, would not an inquisition be called for to exorcise the nation of our presence?

The Taliban doesn’t have much on some Christian politicians. If these true believers had the power to unleash their vengeance in order to purify the nation, the difference between them and other religious terrorists might dissolve into semantics.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/29/arkansas_lawmaker_says_he_serves_god_not_his_constituents/

The problem with “Obamacare” is not that it tries to get medical care for all people, but that it tries to do so within a profit driven system. “Obamacare” will fail not because it is socialistic, but because it is not. It will always be more profitable to deny coverage than provide it, so the notion that we can provide health care through a capitalist framework is delusional. A homeless man robbing a bank for one dollar and waiting for police so he can get free health care in prison is not just a sad story, it is a apocalyptic glimpse into our own future if we do not provide basic health care for all people that is not contingent upon someone making a killing in the process.

http://rt.com/usa/oregon-man-bank-robbery-healthcare-126/

Yesterday fast food workers had a nationwide walkout of their low paying jobs. Today they are returning to their places of work. I am on my way to escort one of the workers back to their place of work so they will hopefully not be punished for holding a strike. If the employer fires or punishes the returning worker, I will be publishing the name of the restaurant later today. I am grateful to Worker’s Defense Project for their role in this struggle. To learn more about this important movement please click the link below:

http://www.alternet.org/labor/massive-nationwide-walkout-fast-food-workers-signals-growing-backlash-against-low-wage

I consider this hopeful news, not that we should expect President Obama to go to Congress before committing an act of war against Syria as our constitution requires, but that our own elected leaders may someday show the same backbone as the British Parliament that would not allow the Prime Minister to bomb Syria without further investigation. At this point of our degenerated democracy, a president can drop bombs on other sovereign nations without defining it as war. But when the US loses a faithful war puppet like England because the Prime Minister was held in check by Parliament, it is a very helpful reminder that our elected leaders in Congress are there for a reason as well, and one of those reasons is to keep presidents from going to war just because they want to. The Republicans aren’t usually right, but they are dead right on this one. It is especially hopeful to see Democrats rising up against this lack of due process by the Obama administration.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/british-parliament-syria-vote_n_3839067.html

Capitalism and socialism are not a political systems, but economic theories. Furthermore they are not independent systems but poles of a balance in distribution based respectively on the individual and the common good. All hell breaks lose when we believe we can choose between them, or can steer the ship of state by economic theory alone. This is why I rail against libertarian and capitalist theories when they pose as systems of governance. They are engines without a steering wheel.

Democracy and libertarian ideals are not economic systems but political theories. They two represent poles of a balance between the ideals of equality and freedom respectively. All hell breaks loose when we think we an choose between them, or come to believe that good politics is necessarily good economic policy. They are steering wheels with no engine.

We can argue about the definitions of each of these four elements, but our task is not to choose between them. Our task is to understand what each can and cannot do, and to put all four in balance.

What follows is a Youtube video where a minister claims that granting civil rights to gays an lesbians will discriminate against Christians. He is claiming that a new law that says wedding photographers cannot discriminate against same sex couples will lead to Christians not being able to bash gays. He says “Christians are the new blacks.”

Setting aside the implication that gay and lesbians and their allies can’t be Christians, and setting aside the fact that  blacks have not been replaces as a target for discrimination, this clip is still a perfect illustration of how people of privilege feel persecuted when asked to grant others the same rights they claim for themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-dr5XwkcE&sns=em

Secretary of State John Kerry said two days ago that the use of chemical weapons should should “shock the conscience of the world.”

“The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable and – despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured – it is undeniable.”

The situation in Syria is a disaster. Certainly, Assad is a nightmare, but that does not mean that the rebels will necessarily be better. Assad’s atrocities do not erase the fact that there are factions from Al Qaeda on the other side. What follows are five reasons why bombing Syria at this time is a bad idea:

1. While we may know that chemical weapons were used, we don’t know for sure who used them.

The US says it has little doubt that Assad is responsible for using the chemical weapons, but other nations are not so sure. If reasonable doubt is the litmus for convicting an individual, should not the standard be higher for bombing a nation?

2. There is already an UN investigation going on.

The US claims Syria has used delay tactics to prevent inspections, but it has been revealed in a WSJ report that they weren’t asked until last Saturday, and agreed to an investigation and a cease fire within two days. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who has been described as a “pliable instrument’ of the US, said he had been pressured by the US to end the investigation, but believed their work was still valid.

3. If we bomb chemical plants we will release the poisons.

Violence cannot solve all problems. While our nation gives lip service to negotiation, it is seriously considering delaying talks so it can drop bombs in the middle of the Syrian mess and then resume negotiations afterward.

4. We ourselves have the world’s largest stockpile of the weapons we are calling immoral.

How can anyone outside the propagandized US take seriously the claim that the rest of the world should be indignant about other nations having the same weapons of mass destruction we have? How are Syrian chemical weapons worse than the depleted uranium we have used multiple times in other countries and which is still causing birth defects in those nations years later?  

5. The world has not forgotten our nation’s rush to war in Iraq.

The US sponsored nightmares in Iraq, Iran and Egypt are more than enough to put us in time out for a decade. We cannot be the moral leader of the world until we can comply with international standards. It is time for the United States to stop trying to recast the world into our own image, and rejoin the human race.